Hi all... I am a new member as of yesterday! My latest issue of Cars and Parts Corvette had a TINY little paragraph mentioning the C3 registry. I'm glad I just happened to notice!

Anyway, I am in the VERY early planning stages of making some significant power upgrades to my '79. I looked at Hedman, Hooker, and Dynomax headers. The Hookers were VERY expensive - at least triple the others. Hedman seemed to indicate their headers wouldn't clear my power steering ram, which left my with Dynomax. I don't know much about their products but the price is right and the catalog indicates they'll fit.

For those of you with late '70s C3s, how did you convert to "true dual exhaust"? Did you custom fabricate the whole system, or did you hack up one of the catalog companies' pre-made "off road" exhaust systems? A couple of my local muffler shops have said they won't convert my car to duals because it would violate some bogus EPA laws. So, it seems I'll have to find a buddy who can help me make / bend / weld a custom system.

I recently installed a set of Dynomax Ceramic Coat headers on my '79 and I am very happy with them. The installation was easy enough, only had to remove the clutch Z-Bar long enough to slide the drivers side in from the bottom and everything else had plenty of clearance.

As far as the duals go - I have a friend with a muffler shop and he installed my duals with no cat converters and Flowmaster 40's for me. This is one nice sounding system although there is a bit of resonance in the interior around 1,500 rpm's. It is loud but not obnoxious. We can still have a decent conversation without yelling at one another and the radio can be heard with no problems, but, when I mash the loudpedal it just brings a smile to my face listening to it.

Hello and Welcome to the C3VR!
I don't have a late '70's C3, but I ordered and had true duals put on my '81. My system came from Mid America Designs. They do list a couple different dual exhaust systems. You may want to check them out and ask them any questions you may have. They say direct bolt in, but trust me...thats not always the case. I took my car to a local muffler shop so they could cut and tweak the pipes so the mufflers would fit. I'm not positive, but you may need a early model crossmember for duals since your car originally was set up for a catalytic system. Here is their web site address www.madirect.com


Hope this helps! Sarge
Now if I can only figure my darn sig. pic!

I put the dynomax ceramacoat headers in my 79 when I swapped out my engine. They work great. Not sure where you're from, but the dual doesn't violate any federal EPA standards. California, no way. Here in Nevada, no problem. I had a local shop run aluminized pipes straight back from the headers to a couple of turbo mufflers. Altogether it was less than $300. Man do I love to hear the secondaries open up in the tunnel. Sometimes I find myself slowing down just so I can speed up.

No problems with the Dynomax

Andy

As far as clearing the steering ram, you may want to call and talk to them. I think what they are talking about is on the 1968's with manual steering there was a steering stabilizer (shock absorber) mounted horizontally down there to help out with front end shimmy.
I know many C3 owners using the Headman Headers part #68300 for the un-coated headers, #68301 for the coated headers, and #68301-6 for the coated headers with AIR pipes to connect to the smog pumps.

I currently have a set of 68301-6's on order for my 1980.

If the emissions control laws take hold you may have to convert
back to the original as produced condition. I am not sure how
its going to go nobody is. Also it may be months or years before
anything happens.....stingraybs